Virginia politics: Sen. Warner opens Hampton Roads office

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, right, shakes the hand of Tim Dolan, who has come to meet the senator, who has just opened a campaign office in Hampton.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, right, shakes the hand of Tim Dolan, who has come to meet the senator, who has just opened a campaign office in Hampton. (Judith Lowery/Daily Press / Daily Press)

Dave Ress, dress@dailypress.com

Maybe it was the 1980s-era software he saw at the Hampton VA hospital, maybe the four-mile traffic jam heading into the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, but when Sen. Mark Warner came to open his Hampton campaign office, his inner policy wonk was in full throttle.

A question from retired government contractor Moses David set Warner off.

"We've got to do something about infrastructure," David said.

And Warner started riffing on his legislation for a new federal financing program that could steer as much as $300 billion of private investment to build or improve roads, bridges, ports and tunnels across the country — including a traffic clogged Interstate 64 a few dozen yards away. He's signed up five Democrats and five Republicans as co-sponsors, and has convinced business and labor groups to support the idea.

"It's just one more tool in the tool box," Warner said, before catching himself to say "I'm giving you waaay too long an answer" and then delving deep into another of his big issues, renewing the charter of the Export-Import Bank, a self-supporting federal agency that helps fund many of the exports flowing through the port of Virginia.

About 50 people, including Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, along with state Senators Mamie Locke of Hampton and John Miller of Newport News, showed up to launch Warner's Hampton Roads campaign office on Settlers Landing Road.

"The world needs a strong America," Warner told them.

But the possibility of more automatic, across-the-board spending cuts when the current two-year budget agreement runs out is worrying, he said.

Cuts to spending on the military, on bridges and roads, on education and on research will only weaken the nation, he said.

It's alarming that some politicians in Washington were willing to let the Highway Trust Fund run out of money, he added.

"But we're going to fix 64 in our lifetime," he said.

Warner asked the crowd to hire him for another tour in Washington, promising to work on bipartisan efforts to break the log jam over federal budget-writing.

"There is a time to be Democrats and Republicans but it's not right to forget that there is a time to be Americans," Warner said.

He is running against Republican Ed Gillespie, who says Warner isn't a centrist working in a bipartisan way but is instead in lock step with President Barack Obama.